Chuck Kyle remembers the phone calls his father took at 5 a.m. It was the steel mill calling. The job didn’t start for another hour or so.

“He had to find out before he would go in the car what kind of tonnage they got the night before, or if there were any problems,” Kyle said. “He couldn’t wait to get there.

“While the coffee was brewing, he had to find out what was going on. He’d go to work and come home around 7 that night. What I learned from my dad was a work ethic.”

The late Fred Kyle helped raise a family and went to night school to become an industrial engineer. He rose through the ranks at Republic Steel, eventually retiring as a plant superintendent.

Chuck Kyle’s work ethic has helped him win 10 state titles at Cleveland St. Ignatius High School. It’s a work ethic that took a humble, high school running back and turned him into an Ohio high school coaching legend.

“I don’t think I’ve ever truly taken a vacation,” Kyle said. “I’ve never gone two weeks, week and a half somewhere. My wife (Patricia) and I will go for three or four days.”

No one but Kyle has won 10 Ohio high school football titles, with at least two in every decade since the 1980s. No one from Lake Erie to the Ohio River has had a football program that has withstood three decades of taking on all comers like St. Ignatius, with nobody knocking the Wildcats down for long.

Seven of Kyle’s state title’s were won in Stark County, five at Fawcett Stadium, the other two at Massillon’s Paul Brown Tiger Stadium. Kyle has brought his work ethic back to Canton and will try to win something not even he owns.

A gold medal.

Kyle is head coach of Team USA, which opens the Junior World Championship on June 27 at Fawcett Stadium against France. This is USA Football’s first junior national team, comprised of some of the best incoming college freshmen from around the country.

“It will be a very rewarding experience,” Kyle said. “To have that kind of talent, speed and strength all at one time at every position ... we’ve all had the privilege of coaching an individual that goes to Ohio State, Michigan or Notre Dame. We’ve never had the experience of coaching 45 guys at that level. It’s going to be fascinating.”

IN HIS BLOOD

Winning state football championships is in Kyle’s DNA. His grandfather won an Alabama state title in 1918. His father won one in Indiana in 1937. Both had gold football charms, which Kyle placed in his pocket the night St. Ignatius won its first state title in 1988. Now he has three gold footballs, and they go in his pocket only when the Wildcats play for a state title.

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They may get company if things go Kyle’s way the next two weeks.

Playing for a gold medal against teams from all over the world intrigued Kyle when USA Football Executive Director Scott Hallenbeck left the first message about the world championships.

“On a personal level, having the opportunity to compete for a gold medal is a major motive,” Kyle said. “I’m 58 years old. You only live once. This is an opportunity to work the sport you love and represent your country. That’s something very special.

“For my personal achievements as a coach, it would certainly be something that would be very special. State championships for schools — and I went to St. Ignatius, and it’s the only place I ever taught — those are sentimental and very important to me. The chance to coach in these games and God willing, for a gold medal for my country, ranks right up there, too.”

Hallenbeck talked with college coaches about finding the right coach to lead Team USA.

The same name kept coming to him once it was determined the games would be in Ohio.

“He’s an English teacher first,” Hallenbeck said. “But whether he’s teaching Shakespeare or Chaucer or executing the two-minute drill, he approaches it all the same with such discipline, focus and passion. Quite frankly, Chuck Kyle was at the top of our list. He embodies all the qualities we would ever want in our first-ever head coach of Team USA to represent this country.”

IT DOESN’T COME EASILY

The youngest of four boys, Kyle learned to play the game the hard way. He always had to play up.

“Or not play at all. That helped a lot,” he said.

He started at running back his senior year at St. Ignatius, rushing for more than 1,000 yards. Back then, the Wildcats weren’t on anyone’s radar.

A shoulder injury cut short his college career at John Carroll. His junior year in 1972, he became an assistant at St. Ignatius. A year later, with a degree in hand, he started teaching there.

“I had no idea what it would turn into,” Kyle said. “To say that this was some goal (10 state titles and building Ohio’s elite program) would be a lie. This is way beyond anything I imagined. When I took the job at St. Ignatius, we hadn’t made it to the playoffs before.”

In 1983, he was named the Wildcats’ head coach, a position he never left, despite other offers.

“There’s a point in your life where you have to accept more responsibility, and I said it was my time to try it,” he said. “My goal was to work with the St. Ignatius kids and try to find what makes this type of kid achieve success.”

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The job didn’t pay well to start. When Kyle won his first state title in 1988, he couldn’t afford to buy himself a championship ring.

But he didn’t coach to become rich.

He coaches because of the challenge and the strategy. The challenge is to motivate players mentally, spiritually and physically. Kyle delivers some of the most meaningful and inspiring pregame talks heard in a high school locker room.

Now he has two weeks to pull 45 players together into a team that will represent the U.S. Winning a gold medal won’t be easy, but Team USA is favored to win the July 5 gold-medal game despite being the No. 2 seed behind Canada.

BUILDING FROM GROUND UP

Kyle also is a track coach at Ignatius, and he understands the importance of junior world games. This is football’s first step toward a long-term plan to get the sport on the Olympic calendar.

“The most important thing we need to realize is we need to do this right the first time,” Kyle said. “Because if we do this right the first time, there’s gonna be a second time. The more and more people will hear about it. The more and more people will realize, you know what, as physical a game the game of football is ... what kids can do after a play is put their hands down and help the guy up. They can slap the guy on the back and say, ‘Nice job.’ ”

Sportsmanship went a long way toward hand-picking the 45 players on the U.S. team. Not only are they among the best in the country, they’ve represented themselves as good citizens.

When the other seven teams — Canada, Germany, Sweden, France, Japan, New Zealand and Mexico — roll onto the Walsh University campus, Kyle will stop practice, and his players will welcome their foreign competitors to camp.

“In 20, 25 years from now, this could be a very important relationship with the careers they do,” Kyle said. “The world is not that big anymore. This summer can bring these kids to realize this is an opportunity to educate themselves and create camaraderie and friendship. We have a lot to do, and along the way, it’s going to be a fun experience.

“We’re going to leave the politics, if you don’t mind, we’re going to leave the politics outside the stadium.

“Politics have nothing to do with this whatsoever. I think it’s extremely appropriate we are making history with the game where it really began, and that’s with young people who have a bright future in front of them. They have a chance to give to not just their country, but all the world to share in the game.”

EMPLOYMENT St. Ignatius High School, teaches English and literary works of Chaucer and Shakespeare

YEARS WITH NATIONAL TEAM First year

HIGH SCHOOL ATTENDED Cleveland St. Ignatius

COLLEGE ATTENDED John Carroll University

COACHING NUMBERS Kyle’s record includes a state playoff mark of 54-11 (.831). St. Ignatius’ 10 Division I football state titles under Kyle represent the most of any high Ohio school since the state playoff format began in 1972. The Wildcats have advanced to Ohio’s state playoffs in each of the past 21 seasons — the longest active streak in Ohio.